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By Mel Rothenburger

ARMCHAIR MAYOR

ROTHENBURGER: NDP government’s housing mandate threatens civic autonomy

Apr 10, 2023 | 4:32 AM

THERE’S SOMETHING TROUBLING about the NDP government’s latest plan to increase housing in the province. Actually, there’s a lot that’s troubling about it.

Legislation later this year will give the province authority to force municipalities to allow up to four units on single-family detached lots, making local zoning little more than a suggestion.

It certainly has the potential to increase the number of available units, but it could also throw local planning into chaos.

Kamloops councillors and other municipal reps returned from a two-day UBCM housing forum at the Coast last week no doubt unsure what to think.

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If the province is going to start calling all the shots on where and how municipalities can build, how can cities possibly carry out effective planning? How are local taxpayers supposed to pay for all the extra infrastructure that will be needed to service this major increase in density?

What happens to community plans that are designed to sort out the best places to put certain types of development? Are cities expected to become conglomerates of the ticky tacky boxes made famous in the old Pete Seeger song?

That song was a condemnation of tract-style housing and middle-class conformity that had become popular during the 1960s.

Kamloops has gone through its share of experiences with high density housing, from the so-called Berlin Wall apartment blocks to condos and town houses. Some have been positive, some not so much, but the city has developed into a pretty good balance of housing types.

B.C. municipalities are a level of government just as federal and provincial governments are. The B.C. government defines them of “autonomous, responsible and accountable government directed by democratically elected councils.”

Local democratically elected councils are supposed to be left to control their own zoning according to their vision for their communities. The NDP’s approach may or may not hold some answers to the housing shortage, but the result could be communities full of sameness.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a recipient of the Jack Webster Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award. He has served as mayor of Kamloops, school board chair and TNRD director, and is a retired newspaper editor. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.